PECKER
US, 1998, 86 minutes, Colour.
Edward Furlong, Christina Ritchie, Bess Armstrong, Mark Joy, Mary Kay Place, Martha Plympton, Lily Taylor.
Directed by John Waters.
In the 70s, John Waters was a Baltimore rebel, a satirist who relished presenting his stories of odd characters with bad taste. But over the years he became fashionable and then accepted by Hollywood (with Hairspray, Cry Baby, Serial Mom). At the age of 50 plus the rebel has softened. There are traces of the old Waters, especially as regards sex, but there is really no swearing and the nudity is being sent up.
Pecker (Edward Furlong) is a snap-happy amateur photographer who is having an exhibition in the hamburger joint where he works. His photos are of ordinary, 'culturally deprived' neighbours. But he is taken up by a New York agent which allows Waters to highlight the contrast between arty New York City types and the blue-collar workers and street people of Baltimore. But, ultimately the tone is light-hearted and what might have been savage ends up as a suburban celebration.
It is a pleasure to see an American director not taking American attitudes and behaviour too seriously (with even a poke at cringingly pious/crazy devotion to the Virgin Mary).
Furlong is naively unambitious as Pecker and there is a generally amiable assortment of oddball characters with Christina Ricci as the obsessive martinet at a laundromat and Martha Plimpton as Pecker's gay-bar organising sister. It is a comedy of how some of the other halves live.
1.The films of John Waters? His perspective on film-making - from shocking to genial presentations of Baltimore (with some shocking touches!)? His experience, age, mellowing? The influence of Hollywood and the box office?
2.The visuals of Baltimore, Waters' love for Baltimore, the songs and the visuals?
3.The locations, the musical score, the songs? The ordinariness of the suburbs of Baltimore? Hampden? Pecker and his taking the photos? Homes, shops, the laundromat?
4.The contrast with the visuals of the New York world, the gallery world?
5.Waters' point about who is real, where real life is?
6.Edward Furlong as Pecker, his age, experience, his name and his not eating much? The credits and his taking all the photos - loosely framing them, snapping them quickly, the quality of the contents, the style? His work in the hamburger shop? The build-up to his exhibition? The cantankerousness of the hamburger shop owner?
7.Pecker's father, genial, concerned about the strip club and the displays and their influence? His mother and her concern about street people, the clothes - and the sequences of her decking out her clients in clothes (and in New York as well)? His little sister and her compulsion to eat sweets and sugar? His grandmother and her statue of Mary and her obsession about devotion to Mary and the statue talking?
8.Christina Ritchie as Shelley - working at the laundromat, bossy and obsessive, her treatment of the customers, their behaviour, her control? Her not understanding Pecker and his photos - and the later transformation when she's able to use all the artistic jargon?
9.Pecker and his friendship with Matt, Matt and his skills as a thief and shoplifter? The supermarket, putting things in the wrong baskets, causing the chaos, stealing the film? His support of Pecker? His later being disillusioned - and trying out for striptease?
10.Tina and her work at the gay bar, the owner, his philosophy of life, the strippers, her description of them, the crassness of some of the customers? Her style, appearance?
11.The exhibition, the owner and his reaction, wanting people to buy, people coming in, friends and relatives? The enjoyment of the show?
12.Rorey and her arrival, the New York world, her gushing about Pecker's photos? The humour of the comments and the irony - especially of the pubic hair? Her plans?
13.The preparation to go to New York, the show, the various arty types of the New York world, socialites, critics? The audience laughing at them? Their reactions to the photos and buying them? The meal afterwards - and the street people coming in and being ousted? A gallery of types, wealthy, art taste, the gay world etc?
14.Pecker and his return to Baltimore, people being unhappy about the photos, the woman with the baby, the various members of the family, Matt and his not being able to be a thief, Tina being sacked? The people at the strip joint? The unhappiness and the challenge to Pecker?
15.The discussions with Shelley, her understanding his art? The episode of the voting, the supervisor and her strictness, Pecker and Tina in the ballot box?
16.The build-up to the local show, the New York group coming down in the bus on tour, the photos and seeing themselves displayed? The initial horrified reaction? The change and their celebrating?
17.The portrait of the parents, the little sister and the Child Welfare Officer coming (and joining in the publicity)? Her being hooked on vegetables? The grandmother and the women from the Society of Mary coming and criticising her for her ventriloquist act? She thinking it was genuine? The statue talking at the end? Waters' attitude towards religion, devotion, Catholic tradition?
18.Waters and his vulgarity, the two strip shows, the photos, language, the little girl snorting the peas...?
19.Waters and his admiration for the ordinary people of Baltimore, photographing in their ordinariness, contrasting them with the people in New York? His drawing on his own experience?
